A yogi with drive

By Irene Sege, Globe Staff  |  June 6, 2009

Bikram Choudhury, the Beverly-Hills-residing, Rolls-Royce-loving yoga master to the stars, comes to Boston tomorrow. He's (literally) the hottest name in yoga: His Bikram yoga consists of 26 postures and two breathing exercises conducted in rooms heated to 100 to 110 degrees. Born and raised in Calcutta, Choudhury, 63, opened his California school in 1973 and credits actress Shirley MacLaine with persuading him to charge his students. "Bikram," she told him, "you're in America now." Choudhury now has licensed 6,600 teachers. We caught up with him by phone in Palm Desert, Calif., where he was training 328 would-be teachers, having driven there in a 1954 Bentley that he restored. What follows is an edited and condensed version of the interview.

Q. Let's talk first about cars.

A. When I was 5, I would stand up in my home, and as the car was going by I would say the name of the car. Then I studied the car magazines. Car books. Study. Study. Nobody can restore a car like I do. Suppose a car costs $25,000. In America, if you say this car was restored by Bikram, it will sell for $100,000. Twenty-four hours a day I study and research about the human body. Sometimes I feel like a meditation to do something else. So in the middle of the night I wax the car.

Q. How many Rolls-Royces are in your garage?

A. Maybe 35 Rollses and Bentleys.

Q. What do you say to people who expect a yogi to lead a simpler, less material life?

A. Where is it written that a yogi is not supposed to have a car or a diamond wrist watch?

Q. How did you get interested in yoga?

A. When I was 3 and living in Bihar, I met a yoga master. He was 93. He taught me some poses. When my family came back to Calcutta, I met my guru. He saw that the little kid can do so much postures. He was excited and started teaching me.

Q. Why the heat in Bikram yoga?

A. If you take a piece of steel to a blacksmith and say, "Make a knife," what's the first thing he's going to do? I have to make the body supple, flexible. Ninety-seven percent of the body you never use. I give you an example. You have a Ferrari. Every day you drive to the office on Wilshire Boulevard only 15 miles an hour. Then you go back home. You never knew under the hood how much power the Ferrari has. If you want to enjoy a Ferrari at 2 o'clock at night you go to the highway. No traffic. No cops. Then you use 700 horsepower and you can drive 200 miles per hour. Why should you have a Ferrari and never drive it? The human body is a powerhouse.